Tuesdays with Corti: Heroic

April 1, 2014

Good morning, folks! Tomorrow begins the final countdown of performances for the last week of RENT! “Heroic” is the word I keep coming back to describing the feat that has been the process and the run of this show! With every production’s creative process, we adventure from the familiar, what we know, into the darkness of the unknown, the indeterminable. You never really know how it’s going to turn out. From designers, technicians, the cast and crew, decisions and agreements are made in the hope the collaboration pours light onto the void and that the landscape of the soul of the composer is revealed in the visual, physical, and music, dance and story. We close Season 3 with a peak experience all around for everyone, and that includes our audience. It has never been more evident than with RENT, in the standing ovations and emotion and praise coming from those who have seen it, that the risk Paramount has taken with this season, and this show in particular, has been so meaningful and stirred the hearts of so many. This young cast of actors knowing very little of the realities of RENT’s story, open their hearts and relive performance after performance the lives ennobled through Jonathan Larson’s characters. The singing and acting is remarkable, simply extraordinary for the technical as well as emotional heights they reach, and how they inhabit their roles and have climbed and gained and continue to grow with every show! To witness this is what is most rewarding for me as their director. The humbling experience it is for me, dear friends, to have this privilege to collaborate and learn the lessons of my life, having the time of my life, working with each of these very giving, very honest and good people. To share this with an audience is a powerful and most gratifying event that never grows old. Everyone who attends this cast identifies how true and generous they are. Through the art, audiences see the reality, the poignancy, the universal truths within the piece that have given the work a global reach touring internationally and translated into several languages. If you haven’t seen RENT yet, get yourself and someone you care about to Paramount. Or just take yourself on a date. Sit there alone as the theater darkens and see what you experience as these young heroes live their lives out of the darkness into the light.